


I'm twisted up inside... you give me butterflies

by reachingforinfinity



Series: Matters of the Heart [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Board Games, Crushes, F/F, Games, Gen, Late Night Conversations, Sexual Tension, Twister - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-10-10 02:16:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17417114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reachingforinfinity/pseuds/reachingforinfinity
Summary: Ryan suggests a game of Twister. Yaz has lots of feelings.Later, Ryan talks to her about an idea that takes Yaz completely by surprise.





	I'm twisted up inside... you give me butterflies

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt "game of Twister gone horribly wrong" at [Daily Prompt](https://dailyprompt.dreamwidth.org/833397.html).
> 
> Title taken from the song "In Love With You" by Freestylers.

It was Ryan who suggested they play Twister.

"Seriously?" Yaz asked. But the Doctor immediately beamed.

"Ooh, Twister! Now there's one I haven't played in a long time! Expect I'll be worse at it now, though... I used to be a lot taller. I won the Milky Way championship once."

"Well, you haven't played against me,” Ryan said, grinning. “I'm a pro at Twister.”

Yaz raised her eyebrows. Ryan had dyspraxia – he knew as well as she did that Twister was a game he'd have a lot of trouble with. He was up to something, but Yaz had no idea what.

"Graham?" the Doctor asked. Graham shook his head.

"Sorry, Doc. I'm not as young as I used to be. I'd probably throw my back out."

"Are you sure?"

"Have _you_ ever pulled your back? Believe me when I say it's not fun."

"Oh, all right," the Doctor said with one of her exaggerated sighs. "Just the three of us, then. Well, come on! I'm sure the TARDIS has Twister here somewhere."

Five minutes later, they were standing in a library, of all places, with a Twister mat plunked down on a rug in the middle of the room.

"Rules. Anyone remember the rules?" the Doctor asked.

"They should be in the box somewhere," Yaz said. She pulled out a sheet full of safety warnings, then saw another piece of paper beneath it. "Here they are."

"Graham, you take that, and the spinner," the Doctor said. "Now, where do we go?"

"I know the rules. Well, some of them, anyway," Ryan said. Yaz gave him another look, but he was acting totally nonchalant. _Okay, now I_ know _he's up to something_. "Two of us start across from each other. One foot yellow, one foot blue. Doc, how bout me and you on those? Yaz, you go to the two red circles in the middle."

The Doctor immediately moved to comply, and Yaz suppressed a sigh as she stood on two reds.

"What do we do now?" the Doctor asked. "Graham?"

"Hang on." Graham was scanning the list of rules. "Okay. I've got to use the spinner, and you do whatever comes up. Like if it shows 'right hand on green', you put your right hand on a green circle."

"What if I've already got my right hand on the green circle?"

Graham squinted his eyes as he scanned further down the page. "If that happens, you have to find a different circle of the same color to put that hand on."

"I'm starting to remember why being tall gave me an advantage," the Doctor muttered.

"Oh, and nobody can share a circle. They can't have more than one hand or foot on them at a time."

"What? Really?" The Doctor made her open-mouthed dismayed face, and Yaz couldn't help smiling. It was her favorite of the Doctor's expressions – ridiculous, but also oddly endearing.

Then Yaz caught Ryan grinning at her, and she quickly straightened her face.

Graham shrugged. "I didn't make the rules. Not much point if the game is too easy, though, is there?"

"So how do we know who wins?" Yaz asked. "I know that falling means you're out."

Graham skimmed the paper again. "If you fall, or if a knee or elbow touches the mat, you're done. Also, if you think you're gonna go down, or you can't do the move, you can choose to stop playing."

"Tricky. I can see why I liked this one." The Doctor was beaming again. "All right, fam! Let's play! Oh, wait, hang on. Probably ought to take off this jacket."

"Could get in the way, yeah," Ryan said helpfully. Even before he'd finished his sentence, the jacket was lying in a heap near the board, and the Doctor was rolling up her sleeves. Yaz belatedly realized that she'd been staring.

The game didn't start well.

"Well, would you look at that," Graham said, peering down at the dial, which he'd placed on a desk next to where he was sitting. "Right hand, green."

"Easy!" the Doctor said, reaching across her front to land on it. Ryan had it even easier – all he had to do was bend over and touch one. Yaz, though, was sprawled across the width of the board, her other hand hovering just over a white spot as she had to support herself one-armed.

"Left hand, yellow."

Ryan knelt down slowly, then easily touched a yellow circle. Yaz had to adjust her body a couple of times, but she made it without falling. She ended up in what looked like some sort of strange push-up position.

Then a blonde head came precariously close to Yaz's face, as the Doctor shifted more of her weight onto her left hand, which had slid a bit under her right arm. To Yaz's surprise, the Doctor grinned at her.

"Nice to see you again, Yaz. Having fun?"

"Er... yeah, sure." Yaz flushed.

Graham was already spinning the wheel again. "Right foot, blue."

The Doctor was practically looking like a contortionist now as she slid her foot forward, trying to balance out the rest of her body to stay upright. Yaz quickly hopped to her circle, then looked over at Ryan, who was suddenly frowning. His foot didn't have to cover a lot of distance, but the pose he needed to go into was complex.

"You can do it, Ryan," Yaz said. "Just go nice and slow."

They all watched anxiously as Ryan cautiously edged his foot toward the circle.

"I'm not sure if I..."

All at once Ryan fell backwards, his arms and legs flying out in front of him. He sat on the carpet for a moment, regaining his equilibrium, then grinned.

"S'pose that shouldn't surprise me."

"I thought you were a Twister champ," the Doctor said.

"Yeah... might have lied about that." He looked Yaz square in the face as his grin grew wider. All at once it clicked in her mind, and her mouth dropped open.

Oh, he was getting a _serious_ talking-to after this was over.

"Guess it's just you and me then, Yaz," the Doctor said cheerfully. "You ready?"

"Definitely." She'd said it with far too much enthusiasm. _Come on, PC Khan. Control yourself._

"Hey, Granddad, mind if I spin the wheel?" Ryan asked, walking over to the desk and sitting down on it.

"Not at all."

He spun.

"Right hand, yellow."

Yaz was shifting her hand backward when a shadow passed over her, and something soft pressed against her body.

"Sorry, Yaz. The other circles are taken."

The Doctor had reached right over Yaz for the closest yellow circle, and since everything but her right foot was also on yellow, she'd had to shift weight to her right hand to stay upright. Which meant...

Yaz blushed madly as she tried to lower herself closer to the ground, but her arms were burning too badly to maintain any other position. She was going to have to stay like this – with the Doctor's chest flush against her back.

A whole new kind of burning sensation was beginning to go through her.

"That would have put my back out for sure," Graham commented.

"What can I say?" the Doctor said. "I like to keep limber."

"Yeah... you're limber, all right," Ryan said. Yaz wanted to shake him.

" 'Kay. Next we've got... left foot, red."

For Yaz it was easy – she moved her foot over one space as fast as she could. The Doctor, however, seemed to be stuck.

"Now I _really_ miss my old legs," she muttered. "You could have left me more to work with, Yaz."

"And let you win?"

"She's getting competitive, Doc," said Graham with a chuckle. "Wanna watch out for that."

"There's got to be a way to do this." The Doctor was thinking out loud, as she commonly did, but Yaz couldn't focus on anything except the Doctor's body shifting against her once more. Then a set of hazel eyes popped down so close to Yaz's face that she almost lost her balance.

"Doctor?"

"Sorry. Trying to see what I'm doing. Bit difficult." She peered somewhere past Yaz, then stared into Yaz's eyes earnestly. Yaz gulped.

"I don't suppose you could point me to where my foot ought to go?"

"Umm..." Yaz turned her head, fighting to keep control of herself. "Over that way. Just behind my foot."

The Doctor paused for a moment as she did the best survey she could, and Yasmin focused on slowing her breathing, trying to calm her pounding heart.

"My leg's too short to make it over there, isn't it?"

"I think so, yeah," Graham replied.

"Hey, you can't help her," Yaz said. "That's cheating!"

"No cheating, Graham," the Doctor said firmly. "Though I probably would have made that call myself, eventually. Maybe. Still... that means there's only one way I can do this."

"Which is?" Ryan said.

"I need to flip over."

Yaz looked back despite herself. "But how?"

"Doc, are you insane? You'll never land that." Graham sounded genuinely concerned.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine!" She looked at the spot for a moment, then threw herself into a spin.

Yaz felt the Doctor's torso quickly move as her weight shifted further onto her right foot. The Doctor was already halfway around, her side just barely touching Yaz as she turned, and Yaz was about to be extremely impressed when the Doctor wobbled dangerously – then fell straight down on top of her.

Yaz's stomach hit the floor first, and for a moment she simply lay there, trying to get air back into her lungs. The form above her shifted just enough that she could take a few deep breaths.

"Yaz! Are you all right?" the Doctor asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." The Doctor seemed in no hurry to move, though, and Yaz began to flush hot again.

There was a long pause.

"Doc, aren't you going to get up?" Graham eventually asked.

"Oh! Yes. Right." The Doctor jumped up. "Sorry. Got the wind knocked out of me a bit."

"I'm not surprised," Graham said emphatically. Yaz, however, was watching Ryan, whose face was full of amusement. It was clear that he didn't think the Doctor was telling the truth.

"Here, let me help you up," the Doctor said to Yaz, extending a hand. She took it, standing up quickly.

"Good game. You won it fair and square." The Doctor gave Yaz's hand a quick shake, and she looked down in surprise.

"Thanks. That flip of yours came really close to working."

"It did!" The Doctor beamed again. "Gotta find a way to practice that. You never know when those sorts of maneuvers might come in handy." She winked at Yaz, and Yaz's eyes widened.

"Well, it'll soon be time for me to hit the hay," Graham said, and the Doctor dropped Yaz's hand as they turned to look at him. "Anyone up for tea and biscuits before bed?"

"Definitely," said the Doctor.

 

**********

 

Later that evening, when Graham had gone to bed and the Doctor was fixing something in the control room, Yaz found Ryan in an armchair in the living room the TARDIS had created for them. He lowered the volume on the television as Yaz sat on the nearby couch.

_Ya Rabb, give me strength._

"What was that all about, earlier? Twister? Why would you even want to play that?"

"I didn't. Not really."

"So why did you..."

"Why do you think, Yaz?" Ryan was grinning. When she didn't reply, he leaned back in his chair, his face becoming serious.

"You like her."

"Ryan..."

"I see how you look at her sometimes, when you think no one's paying attention," he said. "You get this sort of light in your eyes. Like you're staring right into the sun."

Yaz was posed for a moment – especially because his tone almost sounded sad. She really didn't want to think about what that might mean.

"Does Graham know?" she asked finally.

Ryan laughed a little. "Nah, I don't think so. It's not the sort of thing he'd notice. The Doc, on the other hand... he might have noticed _her_."

Yaz narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"You seriously don't know?" He looked incredulous.

She sighed. "Just tell me."

"She was pretty into the Twister, wasn't she? Like, _really_ into it."

Yaz scoffed. "How would you know?"

"I got out early, remember? I saw it all from the outside. When she crawled onto you."

"She had to do that, or she would have lost."

"Yeah, and what about when she fell? Did she have to stay on top of you then, too?"

"You heard her... she got the wind knocked out of her, same as me."

"And you believed that?" Ryan shook his head. "I was there the whole time. Her breathing didn't change at all."

Yaz stared at him. "You can't actually be suggesting that she likes me."

"Why not?"

Yaz's scoff was even bigger this time. "Ryan, she's a time-travelling alien. She's experienced more things, met more people, than any of us can even imagine. She's lived entire _lifetimes_. What could she possibly see in someone like me?"

"You're smart. You're brave. And you help people, just like she does. That's why you joined the police force, isn't it? You and the Doctor aren't as different as you think."

Yaz sat in astonished silence.

"All I know," Ryan continued, "is that if I liked someone as much as you like her, and I thought there was a chance she might like me back... I'd go after it."

"Yeah, but what if she doesn't?" Yaz asked softly. "What happens then? What happens to all this?"

"She's not gonna kick you out of the TARDIS, if that's what you mean." Ryan said. "Me and Granddad would stick up for you, for one thing."

Yaz smiled. "Thanks. It means a lot."

"No problem," he said with a shrug. "So – what do you reckon you'll do?"

"I don't know," Yaz said. "I mean, I can't just decide right away. I need time to think about all this."

"Yeah, I get it. No pressure or anything." Then he stood up.

"Well, I'm off to bed. Want this?" He offered Yaz the remote, but she shook her head.

"That's all right. I was just about to get some rest myself. See you tomorrow, Ryan." She gave him a warm smile. "And thanks. For everything."

Ryan nodded at her, then left the room.

He waited until he was in his bedroom with the door shut before he put his head in his hands.

**Author's Note:**

> "Ya Rabb" is an Islamic term that translates roughly to "Oh Lord, God". "Rabb" is especially used when asking for help or guidance. ([source](https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-Rabb-%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%91-and-Allah-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87-in-Arabic/answer/Salwa-Halabia))
> 
> Also, I'm considering making this a series, or a multi-chapter fic. Y/N? [EDIT: This is definitely going to be a series.]
> 
> Constructive feedback is always appreciated!


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